ALEX PETKAS
FOUNDER AUTHOR HOST
Alex likes helping people draw energy and practical insights from great figures of the past.
He left a successful career in academia in order to this better. You can read his CV here.
Besides peer reviewed research publications, he has written for many non-academic venues, including Compact, American Mind, Man’s World, and Antigone (where he is a founding editor).
He lives with his wife and kids in his native Texas.
WHY?
Do you want to listen to the most influential true stories ever told?
Do you want to get great ideas from the greatest people?
Well, I did.
But unfortunately, Plutarch’s Parallel Lives – the world’s greatest library of real ancient heroes – is really hard to listen to in audio form.
I tried to put them on in the car, or when I was folding the laundry. I struggled through all the difficult sentences and obscure names, the jarring shifts of context. And I got lost and confused.
Again and again.
That’s saying a lot, because I used to be a professional classicist, and a university professor. Plutarch was in my wheelhouse. I taught his books in many of my courses on Greco-Roman antiquity.
So after I left academia, I decided to make the podcast that I wanted to exist back then.
It’s called The Cost of Glory. Plutarch’s Lives, retold dramatically, for busy people trying to accomplish things. All the highlights, best quotes, greatest moments. With analysis and practical takeaways.
(I also share notes and insights from other great books I encounter from my research into these lives).
Plutarch is incredible. He’s a historian, a philosopher, a literary artist. He painted, with his words, some of the most dramatic and well-remembered scenes in Western culture.
He’s also funny sometimes.
But as a coach and confidant to some of the richest and most powerful men in the Roman Empire, he cared most about helping his readers lead, succeed, and flourish.
That’s what I want for you too.
In the podcast, I also present highlights and actionable insights from other great books and figures I encounter in my research, such as Xenophon, Plato, Caesar, and many more.
The Cost of Glory is available for free on all podcast players, as well as YouTube.